Dark energy may disguise shape of universe

03 August 2009 by Pedro Ferreira



WE LIVE in a special time. For the past two decades, most of my colleagues and I have been working under the assumption that we can know everything about the universe. We know the amount of matter and energy it contains. We know its shape is flat. We can trace its history from the earliest moments after the big bang and we can even predict its fate. Or at least we thought we could.

Why were we so confident? Exquisite measurements of the radiation left over from the big bang led us to believe that we could work out the curvature of the universe to within a few per cent. In doing so, we have determined how much energy the universe contains and that most of it is in an exotic form called dark energy, which is driving the expansion of space.

However, recent discoveries have left me wondering if these claims were premature. As we learn more about dark energy and its effect on the expansion of space and time, we find that dark energy and the shape, or geometry, of the universe are worryingly intertwined.

By changing our assumptions about dark energy we can radically modify our constraints on the shape of the universe. Equally, without a much more precise measurement of the geometry, it is impossible to determine the nature and evolution of dark energy. Our picture of the universe has, to some extent, been blown wide open again.

more:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327191.600-dark-energy-may-disguise-shape-of-universe.html

thanks for posting

They KNEW everything about physics and the universe, with only a few unanswered questions and measurements to be dealt with.

Enter stage right: Special relativity. Quanta. General Relativity.
And POOOF goes the old system.

The hobgoblin of immature science.

About Dick Cheney's misdeeds.


Much more interesting, this, and not as scary.

I think we know very little about Cosmology at the moment. The whole accelerating explansion thing has really thrown a wrench in the works.

I think it is really cool that we don't know! That leaves lots of room for fun speculation.

:kick: